IP Carrier

BT might only have about 30 percent market share of the UK fixed network internet access market, but it has about 80 percent share of that market when considering both retail and wholesale market share. In other words, 80 percent of all fixed network internet access connections rely on BT’s network.
source: Morningstar
And though the whole point of the wholesale regime is to promote competition through use of a single access network, Morningstar analysts say that in the fixed networks segment of the communications business, “competition is increasingly between telecom companies and cable-TV operators.”
source: Ofcom
In principle, once Virgin Media completes its Project Lightning network upgrade, Virgin Media will be able to sell services to about 70 percent of UK homes. As has been the case, that likely will mean that Virgin Media begins to grab more of the share of demand by consumers for the fastest access speeds.
source: Virgin Media
source: Ofcom
In the U.S. market, cable operators hav…

Mobile market consolidation from four to three now is an issue in Australia. At least partly at issue is whether the combination is a vertical merger between companies that operate in different parts of the communications business, or a horizontal merger that combines firms in the same lines of business.
But regulators also are signaling they might consider the merger in the context of converged networks combining fixed and mobile elements, something rather new in such competitive evaluations.

Also, the change in markets potentially caused by 5G seems a clear issue as well, as the ACCC believes 5G has potential to create a single functional market where traditionally there have been two.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says the proposed merger of Vodafone and TPG will lessen competition, as it will remove a competitor from the mobile market and because Vodafone might be removed as a competitor in the fixed services market.
“A mobile market with three major players ra…

One can hope that 5G, network slicing and private 5G bring new opportunities to create and sell services that are not based simply on usage or best effort speeds; that are 

In the streaming era, ability to offer unique content, and lots of new content, has emerged as a strategic advantage. And that has lead to a new emphasis on production of new and unique content.
About $43 billion is spent every year by Disney and Comcast to create new content. Altogether, some $116 billion is spent to produce new video content in the United States each year, according to Ampere Analysis.
Such spending on unique content matters now that Netflix has dramatically changed the economics of the content business.
For decades, virtually all suppliers of linear subscription video services offered the same fare: a big bundle of channels. Differences were at the margins, namely the specific mix of channels offered to customers on each tier of service.
In the video streaming business, content exclusivity is the norm. And that emphasis on unique content is going to increase in the future.
source: Reelgood.com, Business Insider
The same pattern holds for TV series content. There is s…

Fixed broadband speeds in the United States are rapidly increasing, according to Ookla. Over the last year, average (mean) download speeds grew 36 percent, while upload speeds increased 22 percent.
In the third quarter of 2018, the average download speed over U.S. fixed networks in the U.S. was 95.25 Mbps. Average upload speed was 32.88 Mbps, Ookla says.
“On average, U.S. consumers should have few complaints about recent increases in internet speeds,” says Ookla. Of course, rarely is anything “average” relating to the internet. There are wide variances by state, rural and urban areas, anyone would note.
source: Ookla
Comcast was was the fastest provider in the United States as a whole, in nine states and in 17 of the country’s largest cities. Cox tied for second fastest at the national level and was fastest in three states and 19 cities. Charter Communications tied with Cox at the country level and was fastest in six cities, tying for a seventh. Charter was also the fastest provider in …

In the four years since 2014, app and content providers have invested over US$300 billion in internet infrastructure. This amounts to US$75 billion per year, which is more than double the 2011– 13 average annual investment of US$33 billion, says Analysys Mason.  
Some 90 percent of that investment has been for hyperscale data centers and third-party data center colocation.
The balance of investment includes including terrestrial transport networks and international submarine cables and edge content caching.
The goal of the growing investment in infrastructure is to move content and services ever closer to end users, which helps to optimise service quality while controlling costs, Analysys Mason says.
There is a good reason why all wide area and local access network have become computing networks: most computing now occurs at cloud data centers, which requires communications with edge devices.  
source: Cisco source: Cisco
In substantial part, content and app performance also drives demand…